Panic-stricken airport officials call bomb squad to inspect unattended luggage.
This is one spicy hoax call that will make ‘snacks’ an unpalatable topic of discussion for a long time among security staff as well as officials at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. An absentminded female passenger’s unattended luggage created heightened panic as security staff suspected of a bomb in the bag. However, the explosive situation cooled down when the bag was found to contain only some papad, homemade snacks and undergarments!
At around 11pm on Monday, some passengers along with on duty jawans of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) spotted a bag near the departure gate of the airport. Taking no chances, officials cordoned the area and called in sniffer dogs to check whether the bag contains a bomb or not. It is learnt that as soon as the dog sniffed the bag, he started barking, as if it contained suspected material.
To avert any tragedy, airport officials immediately called the Sardarnagar police and the Bomb Disposal Squad to check the bag. During the check, officials found papad, homemade snacks and some undergarments too! Just as the experts were going about their ‘risky business of checking’, a woman, identified as one Shefali Udaykumar rushed to the spot and snatched the bag and its contents from the officials, who were then in the process of divesting the bag of its explosive contents one by one, providing much amusement to relived bystanders.
An official involved with the operation said there was papad in the boxes of the baggage that was left behind. “We brought the dog squad as the luggage was left unattended. Perhaps it was the spice or something else that ticked the dogs off. But eventually it turned out that it was a harmless box of papad. The owner even came to collect the bag and it was handed over to her,” the official said. Investigation by Sardarnagar police revealed that Shefali is a US citizen and came to meet her mother at Vadodara a month back. She was supposed to reach US via Mumbai through a connecting Air India flight on Monday night.
She came to Ahmedabad with eight other family members and 12 bags. After reaching the airport, she learnt that her flight has been cancelled, thus all of them left from the airport in a car for home at around 11pm. In the hassle to reload the bags in the car, she left this bag at the departure gate.
After lunch at a hotel near airport, she went to her friend’s place at around 12am, where Shefali and her family members found that one bag is missing. Till the time she reached the airport to claim her lost luggage, it had become a potential ‘papad bomb’. It is learnt that when the bomb squad was pulling out her clothes one by one, she recognized her contents and stormed in by breaking the cordon closing the bag and putting an end to her embarrassment. She told officials that she forgot to take her bag while leaving. Police took her statement and let her go.
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